Hypothetically speaking, if I could choose to bring one eye color on an island, I would choose to take Bare Study paint pot with me. As you know how excited I am when it comes to MAC, my utmost favorite product is no other than the paint pots. Introduced to the market in August 2007 via the "Painterly" collection, paint pots have quickly become the favorite items of many MAC fanatics. These pots are creamy eyeshadows that does not crease, fade, budge, cake, or smear! Also, paint pots are superior to shadesticks and paints as they are easy to apply and highly blendable.

After hearing a lot of praises about these paint pots, I bought my first one, Painterly, at the end of last year. Then when Fafi collection came, I bought Cash Flow and Perky. I was very lucky to get Bare Study as well since this color has become a cult favorite and gets sold out pretty fast online and offline.

The best way to store paint pots is to put them upside down

How they look in the pot. Pretty, right?

Each paint pot took $16.50 USD out of my pocket. As gorgeous as they are, their prices aren't cheap. However, these babies sure will last me a long time. After intensive use, they barely make a dent as you can see above. These colors are good to use as eyeshadows. However, they are perfect bases to intensify your eyeshadows. When coupling with a different paint pot, your eyeshadows do change a little bit. For example, browns and neutrals with flecks of gold/yellow will show more gold/yellow when applied on top of Cash Flow.

A swatch of all the paint pots I have. A very little amount was used per swatch.

As pretty as they are, paint pots are still expensive in my book. So I set foot to find a cheaper alternative in the drugstore and ding ding ding, there it was in full glory and 50% off...Maybelline NY Dream Mousse shadow!

Bare Study vs. Ivory Illusion

At full price, each dream mousse shadow costs around $6 USD. That day at CVS, yours truly paid 3 bucks for Ivory Illusion as I thought it would be a good dupe of Bare Study.

Two contenders in their own territories

Texture-wise, Bare Study is a cream while Ivory Illusion (not "True Illusion" as the caption indicated!) is a mousse. Therefore, it is much softer and you need to use more. Also, Bare Study weights 5 grams will the other one only weights 3 grams. So they actually cost the same as you get more use out of the paint pot than the mousse shadow. Ivory Illusion is more sparkling than Bare Study as well. If you like sparkling base, this one is for you.

The swatch: now I know why I kept on typing "True Illusion"The color totally disappeared on my arm! And I used a chunk of it!!!

So how does the poor guy hold up? Pretty well, I need to say. One day, like a mad scientist, I applied Bare Study on one eye and Ivory Illusion on another then proceeded on my eyeshadow application routine. I spent about 3-4 hours shopping in the Florida heat and humidity. When I came back, the side that had Bare Study was the same while the other side that had Ivory Illusion smudged a tiny bit. So for my $3 spent, I was quite happy.

My ratings: A+ for the paint pots, B+ for the mousse shadow. The mousse could have been rated higher if I did not have to use a lot and it held up my eye colors better. For the price, I'm quite happy.

Maybelline NY has about 6 colors for these mousse and it does look like they are closing it down. I kept seeing the "Last chance item" at the drugstores and Walmart. So when it hits dollar stores, we all know what to do, right?

Bonus picture for y'allI love that Maybelline put the color on the cap. MAC just uses their black lid and forces me to invert the pot to find the color!

That's it for today. I love paint pots and they're in my top 5 right now. But for the price I paid for True Illusions, I think it holds up pretty well. So there we have a splurge and a steal. I hope you enjoy this entry and please give me some comments. You know I like them!